The early-life correlation you see with most billionaires (Carlos Slim, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, etc) is that they got started at a young age in something that was critical to their success later in life. Oddly enough, you see the same correlation in sports (Tiger Woods), chess (Bobby Fisher), music (Mozart) and pretty much everything else. Hmmm…. maybe there’s something to this?!

Examples…

Bill Gates began programming on the best computers available at least a few hours a day every day beginning around 12 years old. By the time he went to Harvard, its likely he was already one of the top programmers in the world and that allowed him the springboard to start Microsoft. Zuckerberg has a similar story. Bezos has a similar story. Elon Musk…. you get it.

Warren Buffett began with paper routes and vending machines when he was just big enough to ride a bike. Because his dad was a senator, Buffett also had the luxury of the Library of Congress, where he read almost every great investing book in print. By the time he got to be 30 years old, he had about 20 years of business chops under his belt. Try NOT being successful with that kind of experience.

Carlos Slim‘s dad started him out running the family’s businesses around 14 years old. Eventually, he took over. By the time he was 30, he was already a multi-millionaire because he’d been hip deep in the action for 15 years. Same basic story for Ron Perelman… same thing for a lot of the new Chinese billionaires… same thing for Mark Cuban.

In addition, many of these people had a great mentor. For Buffett it was Ben Graham. For Perelman and Slim, it was their dads.

So, in conclusion:

1. Let your kids start early.
2. Get a mentor for them, if you can’t be the one to mentor them.
3. Work with them to find and embrace their passion.
4. Teach them to be numerate. If will help their businesses later in life.
5. Teach generosity. Those who would receive much must be able to give much.
6. Teach a love of people. The only way you get rich is by serving the real needs of others.
7. Teach a love of work. After they get rich they can coast.
8. Make them aware of the full range of life options.

Photo Credits: Con Tanasiuk/Design Pics/Corbis

Culled from: http://www.quora.com/What-are-good-ways-to-prepare-my-kids-to-be-billionaires